William “Stikine Bill” Robinson (d. 1926)
Bill Robinson was born in North Anson, Maine. He worked on railway construction across the continent, including the ill-fated MacKenzie and Mann line proposed to extend from Glenora on the Stikine River to the south end of Teslin Lake. 1) Stikine Bill joined Mike Heney’s work crew on the construction of the White Pass & Yukon Route railway in the fall of 1898. Bill was an impressive six-foot-three and weighed over 300 pounds. He was known for his creative profanity and the accuracy with which he spit his Black Strap chewing tobacco. Bill had a gift for working with horses and men.2)
During construction, a winter road connected the completed railway from Skagway to the White Pass summit with Log Cabin and Lake Bennett. Box cars were delivering commercial freight and rail construction supplies to the summit and Heney formed the Red Line Transportation Company to move it over the winter road using four-horse transport sleighs. William Robinson was put in charge of the daily operations.3)
As construction progressed, the lake steamers proved unable to deal with moving equipment and camp supplies from Bennett to Carcross. Stikine Bill was tasked with the construction and operation of a scow with the carrying capacity of 150 tons. It was shaped like a cigar box, with little difference in the shape of bow and the stern, so was ungainly to manoeuvre. In August 1899, Bill was transferred to grading foreman, guiding more than 500 men and a hundred teams of horses pulling wagons and scrapers. They followed engineer Lewis’ surveyed line of stakes, and were followed by the crew laying tracks. 4)
The grading had to be complete before the track could be laid, in this case by Charley Moriarity, otherwise known as “the Snow King.” The two crews raced for two weeks on a bet that the track layers could catch the graders. 5) Stikine Bill’s graders reached Whitehorse on June 6th, 1900 and Moriarity’s track crews were just five miles to the south.6)
When the railway was finished Robinson moved on with Heney to build the Copper River, Cordova and Chitina Railroad for the Kennecott Copper Mines. He stayed in Alaska to mine and prospect until his death.7)
Robinson Roadhouse Historic Site is located at the old Robinson railway siding on the South Klondike Highway.